The term “cooperation facilitator” (CF) can be used to describe a device within a network that receives rate-limited information from multiple encoders that share a multiple terminal channel, such as (but not limited to) a multiple access channel (MAC), and sends rate-limited information back to the encoders. After exchanging information the CF, the encoders can transmit their codewords, which are functions of each encoder's message and what it received from the CF, over the channel. In the context of an encoder with multiple antennas (e.g., a MIMO scenario) the encoder is often described as sending multiple codewords (one codeword on each antenna). From an information-theoretic perspective, however, transmissions via multiple antennas in this way is more appropriately considered as transmitting one codeword encompassing the symbols transmitted via the multiple antennas. In this regard, CFs can be utilized to enable an encoder within a MIMO or MISO system to select the codeword to transmit via its multiple antennas. One metric that can be used to evaluate the benefits of using a CF is a metric referred to herein as sum-capacity. The sum-capacity of a network is the maximum amount of information that is possible to transmit over that network. Cooperation gain can be defined as the difference between the sum-capacity of a network with cooperation and the sum-capacity of the same network without cooperation. In certain instances, it can be shown that even a very low rate cooperation between the MAC encoders can vastly increase the total rate that can be delivered through the MAC. The cost of utilizing a CF can be measured as the number of bits the CF shares with the encoders and the benefit as the gain in sum-capacity.